1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly, to an upright vacuum cleaner that is capable of selecting a suction path from a suction inlet body or from an extension pipe connected to a cleaner body to draw in dust from a cleaning surface using a suction force generated by operation of a motor in the cleaner body.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a vacuum cleaner is largely divided into an upright-type vacuum cleaner and a canister-type vacuum cleaner. The upright-type vacuum cleaner has a suction inlet body directly connected to a cleaner body without passing through an extra hose or an extension pipe, and can improve a cleaning efficiency using its own weight of the vacuum cleaner when cleaning a carpet.
The canister-type vacuum cleaner differs from the upright-type vacuum cleaner in that a suction inlet body fluidly communicates with a cleaner body through a hose or an extension pipe. Due to this structure, the canister-type vacuum cleaner provides an unrestricted freedom of manipulating the suction inlet body compared to the upright-type vacuum cleaner. Accordingly, the canister-type vacuum cleaner can easily clean hard-to-clean areas such as floors, stairs, and narrow areas that the upright-type vacuum cleaner cannot easily reach.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,882 and EP1464257 disclose an upright vacuum cleaner that comprises a hose and an extension pipe in a cleaner body and employs a suction path switching structure to guide dust and air drawn in from a cleaning surface to a dust-collecting unit through the extension pipe in canister cleaning mode, thereby acting as both an upright-type vacuum cleaner and a canister-type vacuum cleaner.